I suppose we can't win them all...
Swansea reject bid for Neil Taylor
With both transfer stories which seem to have a semblance of truth about them being rather undesirable for your average Swansea fan, it seems there's been a bit of positive news at least - we've rejected Fulham's bid for Welsh international full-back Neil Taylor. Fulham have confirmed they're interested in Taylor, with Rene Meulensteen claiming he's been impressed by Taylor since his time at United:
“We have put a bid in. It’s on the table. It’s simmering. I rate him. I rated him when I was at United.
"The boy was very unfortunate. He had that horrific injury at a time when he was really playing at his best and he had top four qualities.”
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/01/24/tmb-meulensteen-reveals-bid-for-swansea-left-back-has-been-lodge/?
The bid is reported to be around the £4million mark, and to me that's waaaay too cheap. Given the market I'd say we should be aiming for a shade more than £6million at the least. Taylor is homegrown, has proven himself in the Premiership and could clearly operate well for almost any club in the PL.
We stood by Taylor when he was injured and I think that, while I'd never suggest I feel he "owes us" anything, he could at the very least see out the season in SA1. It's looking more and more likely Laudrup is off to pastures new in the summer, and it's more than possible Tayls could find himself first choice left-back next season if whoever comes in prefers his full-backs to defend rather than gallivanting down the wing.
Fingers crossed his agent doesn't get his wish and spirit him away to London, no matter how much the Cottagers are craving him. See what I did there?
Bolton confirm Swansea interest in David N'Gog
Christ. Dougie Freedman has confirmed we're in for N'Gog, and some sources have quoted him as saying he "expects him to join the Swans". Given our relative superiority over Bolton, it's hard to see him turning the move down - even if he is likely to spend the rest of the season as a super-expensive bench warmer. Why, though? Why do we need him? With Michu coming back to fitness, and Alvaro Vazquez still on loan, why do we need another striker - especially one with a poor track record and who'd command wages of £20k+ a week? It really doesn't make any sense to me, especially given our history of avoiding permanent deals in the January window.
Surely there is someone out there who would fit the bill, but on a loan basis? By signing N'Gog now we're a) automatically paying over the odds given it's the January transfer window, b) filling another squad place with a "non home-grown player" and c) spending money that could be spent in the summer. To me at least, it literally makes no sense. If someone could explain to me how indeed it does make sense, it'd be much appreciated.
In other news...
The Swans have had plans to increase the capacity of the Liberty to 33,000 approved, with the work taking place in stages over the next three years (if everything goes to plan). I'll put together some information and get a blog up related to that later on...